Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters
Jeffrey Ross Gunter’s year-and-a-half tenure as U.S. ambassador to Iceland under Donald Trump was, by many accounts, a chaotic mess.
The wealthy dermatologist and GOP donor—who’d never been to Iceland before being confirmed to the post—churned through staff, lashed out at employees, demanded a gun and armed security guards in the world’s safest country, and tried to do the job remotely in California during the pandemic, according to a bombshell CBS News report.
A subsequent report on Gunter by the State Department’s Inspector General found that he threatened to sue embassy employees he perceived as enemies, and alleged that Washington was so disturbed over the situation that it instructed U.S. diplomats in Europe to work directly with Icelandic officials, bypassing Gunter.